This invention relates to a handle device for a refrigerator door, which is provided on a hotel kitchen refrigerator or the like and has a vertical, upwardly extending handle. U.S. Pat. No. 4, 202, 573 discloses a similar handle device for a refrigerator door.
In the disclosed handle device, by pulling the handle toward the front, it is turned about its fulcrum pin. At this time, gaps are formed between the back side of the handle and front side of a housing and also between the front side of the handle and front side of the housing, such that inner parts such as a spring accommodated in the housing can be seen through these gaps.
With such handle device for refrigerator door, however, when the handle is gripped with a liquid material such as a cook's hand with Worcester sauce or the like attached thereto, the Worcester sauce or like is transferred and attached to the handle. In this case, Worcester sauce or the like will intrude through the gaps noted above, which are formed between the handle and housing at the time of opening the door, into the interior of the housing to cause corrosion or rusting of the inner parts such a spring, thus resulting in a defective operation of the handle device.